avablog

We made the mistake of giving Ava a yogurt-covered pretzel on a spin through our co-op a couple weeks back.  Now she’s all about yogurt-covered pretzels. The first time she asked for one, though, she said, “Can I have a yogurt kind of pretzel?” “A what?” I asked. “A yogurt kind of pretzel.” Now, for […]

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“Poop!” *laughter* “Poop!” *laughter* “Tell me a story!” “Tell me a story, please!” “Tell me a story about poop!” *sly grin* “Poop.” *laughter* Sure, it’s not Tavern on the Green, but it’s fun. Try not to laugh when your two-year-old becomes infatuated with saying “poop.” Just try it.

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All right. Here’s the point in our program when I geek out on my daughter’s brilliance. Look, you knew it was coming, right? Don’t act all surprised.

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I’ve misplaced the cable I need to get pictures off my camera, so we may go as long as two days without a moment of cuteness.  I know.  At least I can see Ava in the flesh everyday.  You, poor reader, must rely on this blog for your daily fix (aside from those of you […]

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We took Ava sledding this afternoon at a hill near our house.  She certainly is becoming an independent little thing.  It seems like she always wants to do things by herself, whether it’s shovel the sidewalk using the little plastic shovel her neighbor friend let her borrow, or pull the sled all the way to […]

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Leah and I heard tell recently of a child attending daycare at another facility in town who’s dropping the F bomb at school. It’s kinda fun to consider these little tykes wandering blind through this new forest of language, but there are obviously some dark parts of the woods they’d be better off avoiding.

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We had to drive three hours to see our first snow of the season, but we got it today in Madison.  It’s little more than a dusting, but Ava’s excited.  I see from looking at my Webcam that Iowa City got a light dusting today, too. Right now Ava’s at the fish store with Aunt […]

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So Leah mentioned the other day that the sound coming out of our entertainment system was inadequate, somehow.  She was right.  We had some family over tonight, and I was firing up some Jazz for background music while we supped.  Sure enough, we were missing audio out of the left front channel.  Time to troubleshoot. […]

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Leah and I were lying in bed this morning at 6:30, alone (what a luxury!), when we heard the pitter patter of tiny feet coming from Ava’s room. Sure enough, she’d hopped out of her bed by herself for the first time and walked over to our room. She had her dog Sissy with her to keep her company on the trip.

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Listen. I want Ava to learn to use the potty as much as the next guy. But this? This just seems…weird. Pee and poo plush dolls, “fresh” from Scandinavia. “Ava, it’s time for bed! What dolls would you like to sleep with tonight? Butterfly the monkey? J.J. the baby? Sissy the dog? Bajs the shit?”

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I’m glad she’s into Play Doh. I’d forgotten all about it before Ava got her first kit, complete with four containers of the clay and a bunch of items for cutting, pressing, and rolling it out. When we sit down together at her little table to begin a molding session, I always ask her what I should make. This last time it was a dog. With a ball. A big dog with a big ball. Oh, and a small dog. With a small ball.

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After a bit I noticed Ava putting her index finger in her mouth occasionally. I didn’t think much of it at first, but then I turned to her and observed her wetting her finger so she could turn the pages in her book. She didn’t notice me watching her, she just kept licking and turning and licking and turning. Very busy.

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But she got smart very quickly. Or, if not “smart,” at least figured out what kinds of responses we were asking for and offered them up on command. That was the beginning. The last couple weeks she’s started to do a lot more of her own creation independent of our prodding. She’ll sit at the dinner table to go on and on about what she did at school that day, or she’ll pick up her stuffed monkey Butterfly and console her in the same way we console Ava when she’s hurt. She absorbs everything, and it’s easy to forget sometimes that she’s there.

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We went to the coffee shop yesterday morning with Leah’s family. As we sat there discussing possible trips in the new year, I looked up to see we were seated two tables away from Marvin Bell. He was sitting by himself at a small table, on top of which sat his Apple Powerbook. He had headphones plugged into the laptop and was obviously listening to something invigorating as he pecked away at his keypad.

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We’ve been in Decorah since the 25th to celebrate Christmas with Leah’s family. Yesterday Leah, Ava, Georgie, and I drive up to Minneapolis to visit relatives and get Georgie a new computer at the Apple Store at the Mall of America. We’ll drive home sometime tomorrow and get ready for Everyone to come to our house this Sunday for New Year’s Eve dinner.

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As I type this, Ava is spending her first night in her Big Girl Bed.  It’s weird to see her lying there, and I could picture her in the future with her feet stretching almost to the end of the bed.  Maybe she’ll never be that tall, but as I stood there at the foot […]

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When I bump into people in the halls at work these days, they always ask if Ava is getting excited about Christmas.  I reply that she is.

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I hate to dispense advice on this blog.  There’s too much of that going around these days.  But I read something today that rang true with me, and it seemed like such an important thing, that I thought I’d better at least write it down here, even if I didn’t make it look or sound […]

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Leah’s sick today.  I believe I’ve mentioned before that she and her sister are emetophobes, which makes being sick even more of a challenge.   So, she was in bed early.  I put Ava to bed and then spent a couple hours shoe shopping online (which I do once every couple years).

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We learned today that, in fact, both tubes have worked free and are sitting, harmlessly embedded in wax, in Ava’s ear canals. But the doc says her ears look fine, so we’ll wait and see whether she starts getting a lot of infections again. If she does, it’s another set of tubes for her. We’re hoping she’s outgrown the need for the tubes (holding your child’s hand as she goes under anesthesia is not the most fun), but if she hasn’t, they’re an effective fix for a lot of pain suffering.

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